It will make the quality of the browser very important. Microsoft will again be in a poor situation with IE and so many different strategies.

I still have these points as the important tech changes to look for on the 27th

1. iPhone apps on mac os x instead of widgets
2. HTML 5 and canvas for online publications. Super tools for the content creators
3. The iTablet working as an interactive touch pad when connected to a Mac.
4. Mac OS X iWork and iLife apps working on the iTable in fullscreen only mode. One app running at a time.
5. iTable support for iPhone apps.

Regards

Unfortunately, Internet standards take far longer than AV standards to be brought out, and it's much harder for one party to push for a standard's approval and adoption because of the large number of powerful players involved. HTML 5 is currently targeted for approval in 2022...and that's not a joke. Apple may still make use of HTML 5 technologies, but it won't appear to be a standards-embracing gesture, but rather some kind of pre-standard, semi-interoperable offering that won't make developers very happy.

I don't read the boards much anymore, but did people give up on iSlate when HP's Slate was announced? I think Canvas is a great name, except it's being used for something in the computing industry already and might be a source of great headache for Apple Legal.

I think that the colors could be a direct hit at Amazon and Sony's use of e-ink that's not quite ready for market in color yet.

If any product in this family that is announced has 3G, then it will likely use the iTunes Store to control application distribution. Which is going to mean that iTunes will be needed to sync this device. While Apple have done a great job with this with the iPod touch and iPhone, not being able to run any application available for OS X will be the thing that makes a tablet far less functional for me.

Also, the SNR in the app store is way too low, and this won't help things at all, with the confusion of what apps run on what hardware (yes, this is several complaints rolled up into one). The app store is also currently pretty difficult to navigate effectively in my opinion.

ROY G BIV + Silver + Gray, sure . I was referring the visual effect of going from the image of the Nanos with their dripping paint to the invitation image moreso than the color content of the images.

Regardless, I really hope Apple knocks it out of the park, whatever it is. It'd be nice to have some inspiring tech news instead of dwelling on the disappointments of the Nexus One, over-hyped 3DTV junk from CES that nobody wants, or the prospect of a cyber-cold-war with China.

Given the modern art theme of the Apple invitation, I'm afraid its going to be more of a "Huh?" and less of an "Ah-hah" experience (like viewing paint-splatter modern art is to me). For example, if it really is a low power tablet they're releasing at the speculated $800 price point, there had better be some super-nifty, market-redefining, never-before-seen interfaces that make it easy to use, some great content that we may already have or want but haven't found the right device for, and equally killer applications to justify that price. Otherwise, I'll be sticking with my $300 netbook, thanks. Also, if its another 3G-dependent device locked to a single wireless carrier, no matter which carrier that is, I'm not the least bit interested no matter what it does. Yet another device that locks us into long term, multi-thousand dollar, monopolistic contracts is a waste of silicon, in my opinion.

I don't read the boards much anymore, but did people give up on iSlate when HP's Slate was announced?

Why would yet another iteration of MS's largely ignored Windows "tablet edition" on yet another PC manufacturer's slate cause anyone to "give up" on an Apple product? MS thinks that what we want is Windows with some touch stuff bolted on. The market has declared otherwise, save for some niche vertical markets. Doing that yet again with the extra Windows 7 magic won't change anything.

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I think Canvas is a great name, except it's being used for something in the computing industry already and might be a source of great headache for Apple Legal.

Agreed.

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I think that the colors could be a direct hit at Amazon and Sony's use of e-ink that's not quite ready for market in color yet.

Not really seeing that. Outside of being generically "colors", which could allude to pretty much anything, they're specifically the colors used in the current Nano lineup.

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If any product in this family that is announced has 3G, then it will likely use the iTunes Store to control application distribution. Which is going to mean that iTunes will be needed to sync this device. While Apple have done a great job with this with the iPod touch and iPhone, not being able to run any application available for OS X will be the thing that makes a tablet far less functional for me.

How are you going to make good use of your existing OS X apps when they weren't designed for touch? It's not like there's some toggle that Apple can include to make existing apps magically effective under an entirely different UI.

Again, MS puts full-on Windows on these things, and it just makes it awkward and doesn't really answer the question "What is this for, exactly?" I think we can trust that Apple will design a UI and variant of OS X that is tightly coupled to whatever hardware they design. I imagine that developers will be free to adopt their apps to the new system, if they think it makes sense.

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Also, the SNR in the app store is way too low, and this won't help things at all, with the confusion of what apps run on what hardware (yes, this is several complaints rolled up into one). The app store is also currently pretty difficult to navigate effectively in my opinion.

I say this all the time, but how would that be different from how you find software for any computer? The S/N ratio of the internet, or the world, is surely lower than that of even the App Store, yet people have fared pretty well sorting through stuff to find what they want.

Even if sales of Tablet apps are limited to a Tablet section of the App Store, all that means is that you have a single place to go get them. The establishing of their existence, desirability and relative worth can happen through the usual channels, just like now.

They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.

ROY G BIV + Silver + Gray, sure . I was referring the visual effect of going from the image of the Nanos with their dripping paint to the invitation image moreso than the color content of the images.

Regardless, I really hope Apple knocks it out of the park, whatever it is. It'd be nice to have some inspiring tech news instead of dwelling on the disappointments of the Nexus One, over-hyped 3DTV junk from CES that nobody wants, or the prospect of a cyber-cold-war with China.

Given the modern art theme of the Apple invitation, I'm afraid its going to be more of a "Huh?" and less of an "Ah-hah" experience (like viewing paint-splatter modern art is to me). For example, if it really is a low power tablet they're releasing at the speculated $800 price point, there had better be some super-nifty, market-redefining, never-before-seen interfaces that make it easy to use, some great content that we may already have or want but haven't found the right device for, and equally killer applications to justify that price. Otherwise, I'll be sticking with my $300 netbook, thanks. Also, if its another 3G-dependent device locked to a single wireless carrier, no matter which carrier that is, I'm not the least bit interested no matter what it does. Yet another device that locks us into long term, multi-thousand dollar, monopolistic contracts is a waste of silicon, in my opinion.

I think they will hit it out of the park. And I dare say you will desire to own whatever it is they made.

Another prediction... from an interface point of view, the screen will go "beyond touch" and will understand the proximity of your hand/fingers from up to 50mm away.

...it'll be velocity sensitive and will have an 'analog' feel to it and will open up a whole new way of controlling the device without touching the screen.

...when you do touch the screen, a very small current is very quickly passed through your fingertips in a 'haptic feedback' manner making screen taps feel like clicking a button.

Proximity sensing will probably not be part of the control scheme. But more likely a highly advanced version of multi-touch with some sort of feedback system and other sensory stuff thrown in for good measure.

Unfortunately, Internet standards take far longer than AV standards to be brought out, and it's much harder for one party to push for a standard's approval and adoption because of the large number of powerful players involved. HTML 5 is currently targeted for approval in 2022...and that's not a joke. Apple may still make use of HTML 5 technologies, but it won't appear to be a standards-embracing gesture, but rather some kind of pre-standard, semi-interoperable offering that won't make developers very happy.

I know that standards are slow to be agreed upon, but Apple has pushed its use of tech that later become standard: wireless N, display adapter, html 5 implementation in web kit.

My point is that you can do alot with the HTML 5 / canvas support in Safari today and with good developlent / content tools it will work without the need of loading a virtual environment into the browser like flash.

Now Actionscript or Javascript is about the same bag of pain so perhaps Apple will do Web GL and open the iTable to a completely new wave of online games. Again build the support into Safari and Firefox and Chrome will follow within 3-6 months.

OT, and sorry, but this is completely false. Pollock's reputation is absolutley secure in the history of American art, whatever you might personally think of his style, Abstract Expressionism in general, the biases of art criticism, curatorial pretensions, or the nature of how art history is written.

There was a huge career retrospective mounted at the MOMA and the Tate just about ten years ago, and let me assure you it was not done to bury the man or reevaluate his reputation downward. Tastes and styles in painting change, but you can't rewrite history. For American abstract art, and all that represented in the history of art, Pollock was a titan.

That would probably be quickly challenged in court, and I would hope that Apple would lose. I think that it would be very bad for the consumer if Apple had the same control over all of the software developed for the Mac and it's distribution that they do over the software for the iPhone. Think of the potential abuse and conflict of interest. They compete against Adobe and Microsoft in a few products, if they wanted to they could just kill off those apps.

While it is commonly believed that the P.A. Semi engineers are working on new ARM designs, I am not sure if the timing is right.

These guys were previously working on PowerPC designs. I don't know if it is reasonable to think that they can come up to speed on a new architecture (ARM), design, tape out and release a new chip in a year and a half.

I'm sure that P.A. Semi-designed silicon will eventually show up in various Apple products, I don't know if the time is now and the tablet is the device. After all, the tablet has been a project going on for years and years. I would guess that a more likely CPU would be a multicore ARM Cortex-A9 in a more conventional design.

PA Semi was actually working on two architectures - ARM chips, and ultra low power PowerPC chips. So they are hitting the ground running, and it's been about 2 years since the purchase.

I assume that ARM design involves taking existing ARM technology - so that would already be there right? Then use their own power management tricks to improve. The better they understand power management, and better they understand ARM, the less power it might use.

Or am I misunderstanding the way ARM licensing works?

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More likely, a P.A. Semi-designed ARM chip would show up in the iPhone first, where power and space constraints would benefit the most from a system-on-a-chip design.

iPhone probably would benefit more, but both will be advantaged by better chips.

I still have these points as the important tech changes to look for on the 27th

1. iPhone apps on mac os x instead of widgets
2. HTML 5 and canvas for online publications. Super tools for the content creators
3. The iTablet working as an interactive touch pad when connected to a Mac.
4. Mac OS X iWork and iLife apps working on the iTable in fullscreen only mode. One app running at a time.
5. iTable support for iPhone apps.

I saw your similar post elsewhere, can't remember where. I particularly like the idea of iPhone apps working as widgets on OSX.

When you say iWork/iLife as "full screen", I presume you mean some apps will work as smaller windows (eg: an iPhone app could stay at the smaller iPhone size on a slate screen?). Other apps would need "full size/full screen" Certainly you wouldn't want iWork/iLife squashed, but did you mean something else?

On another note, I'd like to see my documents folder synced and available between Mac, iPhone, slate. Whether it uses iDisk/MobileMe or not is less important.

I saw your similar post elsewhere, can't remember where. I particularly like the idea of iPhone apps working as widgets on OSX.

When you say iWork/iLife as "full screen", I presume you mean some apps will work as smaller windows (eg: an iPhone app could stay at the smaller iPhone size on a slate screen?). Other apps would need "full size/full screen" Certainly you wouldn't want iWork/iLife squashed, but did you mean something else?

On another note, I'd like to see my documents folder synced and available between Mac, iPhone, slate. Whether it uses iDisk/MobileMe or not is less important.

Apple should make our files and work follow you out of the box. Between macs and devices. Have a nice cached NFS cleaver/lazy implementation.

With full screen only I mean not in window mode. Like on the iPhone today only one app is running at a time to conserve resources. So Mac apps on the iTable could run in fullscreen single ap at a time, but iPhone apps can run in as widgets do i the Mac today.

Only widgets should be iPhone apps now on the mac and widgets should be moved to the iPhone as an extended notification driven and multitasked applets.

I am sure that's exactly what it means. It's something totally new and different and has multiple uses. Imagine the number of apps that will be available a year from now on an 10" iPod Touch like device. It can't really be classified but it is a new creation. Some (specially around here) may even call it a piece of art ;-)

[CENTER]Personally...

I find any device with a 10 inch screen that can't successfully run my OSX applications to be of dubious value/use, especially when one can buy a speedy netbook for US 300.00, install OSX and have full PC and Mac functionality.

We'll see where this goes, but they'd be better to introduce a smaller MacBook than a larger iPod Touch.[/CENTER]

HarperCollins is one of the biggest publishers in the world and is a subisdiary of News Corp. This will be just the very beginning of all the publishers that will flock to the tablet. Assuming Apple offers the same revenue split (70/30) with publishers that it offers app developers this is a big time no brainer. Amazon offers 50/50 splits but is willing to do 70/30 only if the Kindle gets exclusive distribution rights for the content. Amazon will obviously have to rethink that strategy once the "iSlate" hits the market. Not to mention that the price point for e-books on the iSlate is likely to be much higher than on the Kindle due to video capabilities that would provide author interviews and other "behind the scenes" content. This is going to be a homerun for Apple. If the price is $700 or thereabouts they could sell upwards of 5 million of these per year in my opinion.

Why would yet another iteration of MS's largely ignored Windows "tablet edition" on yet another PC manufacturer's slate cause anyone to "give up" on an Apple product? MS thinks that what we want is Windows with some touch stuff bolted on. The market has declared otherwise, save for some niche vertical markets. Doing that yet again with the extra Windows 7 magic won't change anything.

I was referring to the name of the product; having an HP Slate and an Apple iSlate would be confusing to consumers.

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Originally Posted by addabox

How are you going to make good use of your existing OS X apps when they weren't designed for touch? It's not like there's some toggle that Apple can include to make existing apps magically effective under an entirely different UI.

I think that's exactly what you do: build a translational UI layer that allows for touch motions to mimick mouse movements, like everyone else does. I think of it like the PPC support layer was frThere's no reason for multitouch to be the only possible input method. It's great for some things, but it can coexist with traditional navigational devices (mice).

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Originally Posted by addabox

Again, MS puts full-on Windows on these things, and it just makes it awkward and doesn't really answer the question "What is this for, exactly?" I think we can trust that Apple will design a UI and variant of OS X that is tightly coupled to whatever hardware they design. I imagine that developers will be free to adopt their apps to the new system, if they think it makes sense.

It's certainly true that an amazing set of applications could well emerge from this project -- especially if the quality of the developer tools remains as high with Apple as it has been since the beginning of OS X. It's going to be quite awhile before certain sectors of the free open source software community can catch up and support a unique device, depending of course on the number of users. (I am thinking very specifically here for software I would want to have on a tablet.)

HarperCollins is one of the biggest publishers in the world and is a subisdiary of News Corp. This will be just the very beginning of all the publishers that will flock to the tablet. Assuming Apple offers the same revenue split (70/30) with publishers that it offers app developers this is a big time no brainer. Amazon offers 50/50 splits but is willing to do 70/30 only if the Kindle gets exclusive distribution rights for the content. Amazon will obviously have to rethink that strategy once the "iSlate" hits the market. Not to mention that the price point for e-books on the iSlate is likely to be much higher than on the Kindle due to video capabilities that would provide author interviews and other "behind the scenes" content. This is going to be a homerun for Apple. If the price is $700 or thereabouts they could sell upwards of 5 million of these per year in my opinion.

[CENTER]Sounds little different than what's already offered via ZINIO magazine subscriptions, a service I've been using since 2003.

It'll be interesting to see if what Apple offers is really something revolutionary, or merely something 'different'.
[/CENTER]

[CENTER]Sounds little different than what's already offered via ZINIO magazine subscriptions, a service I've been using since 2003.

It'll be interesting to see if what Apple offers is really something revolutionary, or merely something 'different'.
[/CENTER]

You are missing the big picture. Apple currently dominates the retail music industry...not just the online music industry...they have 25% of the total music industry...so while they have significant market share there are still other players that can make money..i am not suggesting that apple will get 100% share of the e-book market but if they get 25% of it while growing the entire market signficantly this will be huge for apple. Apple is going to be first to market with a tablet that can be used for many different tpes of computing and entertainment and the product is obviously going to be better than any "competitors" already in the market (ie. kindle). And publishers are obviously very well aware of apple's success with apps and music so you better believe they don't want to get left behind the apple train when it starts taking off for e-books. i suspect there is going to be a big rush to the tablet from book publishers, especially since apple's model will allow them to grow average selling prices for their books while giving them a larger slice of the higher price tan they get from others out there.

i suspect this is also going to be very big for the video game industry as it will provide for a far superior gaming experience than the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod touch.

The timing is right for a high end tablet that can do many things and Apple is obviously the one company that you can be sure will deliver on all fronts.

I find any device with a 10 inch screen that can't successfully run my OSX applications to be of dubious value/use, especially when one can buy a speedy netbook for US 300.00, install OSX and have full PC and Mac functionality.
[/CENTER]

[RIGHT]Most people can't. And, even if they could, they don't.

Apple is more interested in marketing to 'most people' than a few geeks.[/RIGHT]

Tim Cook is gay, believes in climate change, and cares deeply about racial equality. Deal with it (and please spare us if you can't).

I was referring to the name of the product; having an HP Slate and an Apple iSlate would be confusing to consumers.

Whoops, sorry.

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I think that's exactly what you do: build a translational UI layer that allows for touch motions to mimick mouse movements, like everyone else does. I think of it like the PPC support layer was frThere's no reason for multitouch to be the only possible input method. It's great for some things, but it can coexist with traditional navigational devices (mice).

I get what you mean, but I think that Apple would be disinclined to build a kind of betwixt and between device like that. I think they'd be inclined to make a purpose driven device in which each and every UI element has been worked out to work toward that purpose, on that hardware, with every app having been specifically tailored to same.

This is an area that Apple has proven to be pretty uncompromising, for better or worse. Whatever good will they might engender by allowing people to run existing OS X software on the new device would (I believe in Apple's opinion) be more than offset by a dilution of what they intend their "tablet experience" to be. A translation layer would lead to unpredictable consequences, with some software able to run but clumsily, something that I don't think Apple is willing to tolerate. And yes, I understand that this level of control-freakism is something that drives people crazy about Apple. I can already hear the cries of "But it's my tablet! I should be able to run whatever I want!"

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It's certainly true that an amazing set of applications could well emerge from this project -- especially if the quality of the developer tools remains as high with Apple as it has been since the beginning of OS X. It's going to be quite awhile before certain sectors of the free open source software community can catch up and support a unique device, depending of course on the number of users. (I am thinking very specifically here for software I would want to have on a tablet.)

And like I say, once Apple makes the UI guidelines and hardware parameters clear, OS X developers will be free to port their apps. I would guess that that process won't be that much a barrier. However, I also believe a 10" tablet will be somewhat hardware constrained in such a way that certain marquee apps such as Photoshop or FCP just aren't going to be able to run well enough, so they won't be allowed to run at all.

They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.

I'm really hoping for a new iPhone and a new lineup of MBP's, too. I could buy both, but I'm waiting on a refresh. I definitely am not buying an iPhone until the next release now, I've waited this long. I don't want a two year (~18 month) wait with a 3GS, for sure.

Yea, same here. I'm thinking of updating my first-gen MacBook to a 15" i5 MBP. But I'm gonna be pretty torn between that and the tablet. A MBP would be more practical, but a tablet would be so fun!